Colour Story - Lingiari Greens Candidate, George Hanna
George Hanna spent seven “long" weeks of care and patience. He travelled across the red desert outback. He was attacked in the paper for social media posts. He experienced verbal abuse and feared physical abuse. Hanna had been introduced to the world of politics.
Hanna was the Greens candidate for Lingiari and was endorsed at the same time the election was called. Formerly a teacher and radio broadcaster, Hanna became a newcomer to politics. He's been concerned about the quality of life in the territory for a while. It was last year when his health condition influenced him to think about pursuing politics. When his kidneys failed due to a hereditary condition known as polycystic kidney disease, he turned to politics.
Being new to politics was a learning experience for him. He found out about the influence of social media on voting. How reduced funding can cause complexity and the difficulty of running up against the established Labor and Country Liberal Party (CLP).
The NT Greens had a small budget over three electorates with less than $50 thousand to spend.
"Much of that went into posters, flyers, how to votes, and radio adverts," he said.
Campaigning in Lingiari took Hanna to Batchelor, Berry Springs, Humpty Doo and Alice Springs. In Alice Springs, he managed to fit in a day trip to Santa Teresa, an Aboriginal community 82kms out of town.
Hanna said the Liberal party had a "dirty” approach in their campaign.
"Historically, it's how the Liberals play - they like to attack their opponents early on. The Greens have a soft approach," he said.
Hanna said he was attacked in the media five weeks into campaigning from a meme he made before he was a candidate describing CLP opponent, Jacinta Price as a "coconut".
"It was dragged up by my CLP Lingiari opponent. It took me by surprise. Why? Who cares in the modern world about a five-month-old meme shared on Facebook? Well, obviously the Murdoch run newspapers care a great deal," he said.
It was "mysterious" to Hanna when Price was found guilty of a similar charge, posting an anti-Islamic video on her personal facebook. But the newspapers were "not interested in her racial profile story".
"I was the one they wanted to drag across the muddy playing field that was the 2019 elections," he said.
Hanna "copped it sweet" over the coconut meme right up until polling day. He said he was verbally abused three times during the morning at the Berry Springs booth.
"One lady started swinging at me, calling me a racist. I thought for a minute there that she was going to kick me with her tree trunk sized cellulite afflicted legs," Hanna said.
"I walked away from that incident unscathed but shaken a little from those horrendous Liberal screams," he said.
An issue Hanna advocated for as a Greens candidate was to stop fracking in the NT.
Hanna said the Greens were the ideal choice to pull out all stops on it and other environmental issues that came with it. It was sad for him when he came to conclude that the Australian people didn't seem to care for their children's future. As not only a Greens candidate, but a First Nations person, the environment matters to him.
"I can complain all I want but the outcome is the outcome - now we wait to see how much damage is going to be dished out to our fragile environment," Hanna said.
"Labor can't act in the NT even if it wanted to on many issues, as the Liberals/Nationals are in power Australia wide," he said.
Hanna believed the CLP could have won if they had a better candidate. He said Price didn't win because of the large proportion of Aboriginal people in the electorate "disliking her".
While Hanna didn't win, he avoided becoming the sixth federal election candidate to get sacked and has learnt how to be better next time.
"People are all individuals and have a mind of their own, maybe next time the Greens will shake that tree a little harder," he said.
